History

The Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic States of the Anglican Catholic Church is one of the original five dioceses of the ACC. It was formed in Jan. 1978 by former Episcopalians, a number of whom had attended the Congress of St. Louis in Sept. 1977. Attendees in St. Louis included Father John Hunt of St. Stephen’s, Covington, Va., a direct descendant of the Father Robert J. Hunt, priest to the original Jamestown settlers. The first three priests of the Diocese were: Father Dale Mekeel from the Episcopal Church in Bridgewater, Va., who later served as the first president of the DMAS Standing Committee; Father Frazier McCammond, a recently retired Episcopal Church priest who started St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Christiansburg, Va.; and Father Ramsey Robertson-Kendall with the Church of the Ascension, Centreville, Va. Other notable early leaders include Father John Pedlar of Amherst, Va.; Father William Rutherfoord, who later became the second Bishop of the Diocese; and Father Harry Scott, who took Fr. McCammond’s place at St. Peter’s in Christiansburg and later became the fourth Bishop of the Diocese.

The founding congregations met in Charlottesville, Va., in early January, 1978 (hence the mention of Epiphany in the DMAS shield), to establish themselves officially as a diocese. These meetings led to The Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic States being established not only to encompass Virginia, but also Delaware, Maryland, the D.C. area, and West Virginia. The addition of a parish in Kingsport, Tennessee, resulted in upper East Tennessee being included in the diocesan territory as well. The first Synod also assigned Father Harry Scott, Mr. Strother Smith, Colonel G.H. Dimon, and others to draw up a Diocesan Constitution and Canons, which they subsequently did.

Within weeks of its founding, representatives from DMAS drafted the Right Reverend C. Dale David Doren (then the bishop of the Diocese of the Midwest) to be the first Bishop of the diocese when an Electoral Synod could not deliver the required 2/3 majority in both the laity and the clergy to elect a bishop. Though he accepted the call, about a year later, Bishop Doren requested a Bishop Coadjutor (a bishop with automatic rights to succession). This request was granted, and Father William Rutherfoord was elected and consecrated in Roanoke, Va., in March 1980. When Bishop Doren withdrew from the ACC to be the first bishop of, our sister jurisdiction, The United Episcopal Church in North America, Bishop Rutherfoord was enthroned as Bishop Ordinary in October 1981.

Though he served the diocese faithfully, failing health led Bishop Rutherfoord to asked for another Bishop Coadjutor. The diocesan synod selected John Cahoon, recently received from the Anglican Province of Christ the King, and when Bp. Rutherfoord retired Bishop Cahoon Ordinary of the Diocese. When Bishop Cahoon died unexpectedly in 2001, Father Harry Scott was elected and consecrated as Bishop Ordinary the following year. Sadly, Bishop Scott passed on very shortly after his consecration, and Father William McClean was elected and enthrone in 2003. Bishop McClean remained the Ordinary of the Diocese for seven years before he retired. When the subsequent Electoral Synod failed to elect, the matter devolved upon the College of Bishops. That body designated the Venerable Donald F. Lerow, a retired Navy Chaplain, to be the Episcopal Visitor to the Diocese, which he became upon his consecration on February 4th, 2012.

Bishop Ordinary

Bishop Donald Lerow was born on July 15, 1950 in Jamestown, New York. Following his graduation from Randolph Central School, in Randolph, New York, he enlisted in the United States Navy. Starting in 1969, he deployed twice aboard the USS Independence, where he was attached to the FV-33 fighter squadron out of Virginia Beach, Virginia. After an honorable discharge in 1973 he married and began undergraduate work at Clinton Community College in Plattsburg, New York. He later transferred to SUNY in Plattsburgh, where he received his BA in 1977.

The Right Reverend Donald Lerow: Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic States.

Discerning a call to the ministry, he applied and was accepted to Asbury Theological Seminary, from which he received a Master of Divinity in 1980. During his time at Asbury, he applied to the Student Theological Program for the Chaplain Corps. In 1982 he was ordained an elder in the United Methodist Church and commissioned as a Lieutenant, Junior Grade. He served his first tour as a chaplain at Bethesda Navy Hospital in Washington, D.C. This marked the beginning of a 28 year career as a Navy Chaplain, which included a tour as Force Chaplain, Naval Forces Central Command & Fifth Fleet, Manama, Bahrain.

In 2002 Chaplain Lerow made the decision to join the Anglican Catholic Church. He was received into the Diocese of the South by Archbishop Haverland, and began serving both military and civilian congregations. In October 2008, after 39 years in the Navy, Father Lerow retired from the active service at the rank of Captain. Following his retirement he helped found St. Barbara's ACC in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

After serving as both Archdeacon for the Military Prelate and as the Executive Secretary for the Missionary Society of Saint Paul, he was elected Bishop for the Military, and was consecrated in Februrary 2012. Following his consecration, he was appointed Episcopal Visitor and later as Bishop Ordinary for the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic States by the ACC's College of Bishops.

Bishop Lerow and his wife, Karolie, have two daughters, Sarah Lerow Cranston and Karen Lerow Palmer, and three grandchildren.

Diocesan Administration

The Bishop is assisted in administration of the Diocese by various officers as laid out in the canons. Key personnel are listed below; for a complete list, please contact the Diocesan Secretary, Mrs. Deborah Weaver.